Biden picks Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) to be first Native American interior secretary  —  Tribal and progressive activists lobbied hard to put an indigenous leader in charge of a department that helps oversee Indian County  —  President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Democratic Rep. Deb Haaland …

Republicans suddenly discover they don't like naughty words  —  Could someone please find Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) a cold compress and a place where he might lie down for a few minutes?  —  The senator, whom you might recall from the time he implied during a presidential campaign …

I Was the Homeland Security Adviser to Trump.  We're Being Hacked.  —  The magnitude of this national security breach is hard to overstate.  —  Mr. Bossert was the homeland security adviser to President Trump and deputy homeland security adviser to President George W. Bush.

Texas lawsuit was the last straw.  I'm leaving the Republican Party: Former NH GOP chair  —  The GOP has ransacked our Constitution and attempted a coup.  The Republican Party of Lincoln is no more.  I'm switching my registration to independent.  —  My mother spent a lifetime trying to teach me to stand for what is right.

Biden picks top North Carolina environmental official to run EPA  —  Michael Regan has forged a multibillion-dollar clean up of coal ash and worked with the state's GOP legislature  —  President-elect Joe Biden will choose to nominate Michael S. Regan, who heads the North Carolina Department …

Alert (AA20-352A)  —  Advanced Persistent Threat Compromise of Government Agencies, Critical Infrastructure, and Private Sector Organizations  —  Summary  —  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is aware of compromises of U.S. government agencies …

Pence prepares to oversee Trump's loss — and then leave town  —  On Jan. 6, Vice President Mike Pence will oversee final confirmation of President-elect Joe Biden's victory.  —  Then he'll likely skip town.  —  As vice president, Pence has the awkward but unavoidable duty of presiding …

Uninstalling Stephen Miller  —  How one man's mastery of the dark bureaucratic arts made life a living hell for immigrants and refugees.  —  In November 2019, a former staffer from Breitbart leaked emails from 2015 in which White House advisor Stephen Miller recommended The Camp of the Saints …

Sweden's king says ‘we have failed’ over COVID-19, as deaths mount  —  STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -Sweden's king said his country had failed in its handling of COVID-19, in a sharp criticism of a pandemic policy partly blamed for a high death toll among the elderly.

Georgia Senate Runoffs: Breaking Down November, Looking to January  —  Dear Readers: This is the last issue of the Crystal Ball this year.  We wanted to finish off our 2020 publishing schedule by taking a deep look at the Georgia Senate runoffs, which will decide control of the Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 5.

Congress faces ‘fork in the road’ on stimulus  —  Negotiators on Capitol Hill and at the White House have still not wrapped up talks over a nearly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package ahead of a Friday deadline, as Republicans and Democrats spar over tens of billions of dollars in government spending.

Peter Strzok's Declassified Messages Give Insider View Of FBI's Trump Campaign Probe  — The Justice Department declassified a batch of internal FBI messages from Peter Strzok, the former counterintelligence investigator who oversaw Crossfire Hurricane.  — The messages provide a real …

2020 Election Map  —  Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2399/  —  Image URL (for hotlinking/embedding): https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/2020_ election_map.png  —  Comics I enjoy:  —  Three Word Phrase, SMBC, Dinosaur Comics, Oglaf (nsfw), A Softer World, Buttersafe …

Hang On for Three More Months  —  Hunkering down to wait out the coronavirus isn't easy.  The costs of isolation are steep.  Quarantine fatigue is real.  The chance to gather with extended family and friends this holiday season is particularly alluring to those of us battling loneliness.

This hedge-fund billionaire is a huge fan of Sen. Kelly Loeffler — but why?  —  Finance mogul Ken Griffin gave big chunks of cash to Kelly Loeffler's PAC — and the timing is intriguing  —  On Oct. 9, billionaire Ken Griffin, the head of a multinational financial services company …

Biden's search for an attorney general complicated by ‘competing questions’  —  Washington (CNN)The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden's tight circle of advisers about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more complicated of the transition …

Amazon Has Turned a Middle-Class Warehouse Career Into a McJob  —  Amazon.com Inc. job ads are everywhere.  Plastered on city buses, displayed on career web sites, slotted between songs on classic rock stations.  They promise a quick start, $15 an hour and health insurance.

75K new Georgia voters registered before US Senate runoffs  —  Nearly 75,000 new voters registered in Georgia since before the presidential election, enough to make a difference in the U.S. Senate runoffs if they turn out.  —  The number of new voters was revealed in an updated voter …

Pardon Everyone  —  Power is wasted if you don't use it, especially when exercising your power will protect your friends and hamstring your enemies.  The Democrats get that.  The last four years have demonstrated that they get how to use power via their obnoxious and evil witch hunts targeting …

Rhode Island governor joins list of prominent Democrats under fire for violating own coronavirus recommendation  —  Rhode Island Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo is being criticized after she was spotted in public dining without a mask after she warned residents that they should stay at home and avoid nonessential activities.

The New Language of Forever War-Making  —  “History, unfortunately, is a forever war,” according to Clifford D. May and Bradley Bowman, who seem never to have encountered a war they don't like.  This faux profundity comes midway through an essay in a collection published earlier this week …

Chicago's Top Prosecutor Blasts Mayor Over Suit To Block Bodycam Video Of Botched Raid  —  Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx spoke against the city trying to conceal footage of police raiding the wrong home and handcuffing a naked Black woman.  —  Chicago's chief prosecutor, Kim Foxx …

Trump cuts $200M in health care funds to California over abortions  —  President Trump's administration announced on Wednesday an upcoming cut of $200 million in federal Medicaid funding to California over the state's requirement for abortions to be covered under health care plans.

A Top Trump Fundraiser Asked the FBI for Help.  Big Mistake.  —  Elliott Broidy hoped the feds would investigate a hack of his email.  But they had other ideas.  —  Let our journalists help you make sense of the noise: Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily newsletter and get a recap of news that matters.

How Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker Won the 2020 Election Coverage  —  FIVE MINUTES before NBC called the 2020 election for Joe Biden, Kristen Welker was sprinting.  After rising at 4 a.m. and coanchoring Weekend Today in New York, the White House correspondent darted into a car …